*This is a message to the TAPRA discussion list. Please be aware that your replies will be sent to all members on the list, unless otherwise specified*

Hi all, and apologies for cross-posting. Please find below some
information about the new theatre & performance galleries which will be
opening at the V&A in March.  If you would like a pdf version of this to
distrubte, please email [log in to unmask] 

many thanks, 

Kate

		    
New Theatre & Performance galleries  		
Opening 18 March 2009
Admission free
										

The V&A’s Theatre & Performance Galleries will open in March 2009
exploring all performance types from theatre and ballet to pantomime and
rock music. More than 250 objects will be on display including a first
folio of Shakespeare's plays compiled in 1623, costumes and sets from
award winning productions, a guitar Pete Townshend smashed during a
1970s performance with The Who and the original 1957 poster for Look
Back in Anger at the Royal Court. Specially commissioned films of
playwrights, directors and actors will include interviews with Michael
Frayn and Sir Peter Hall.

The new galleries will present the collections in a fresh way, focusing
on the process of production and performance from initial conception and
design to opening night. Set models, stage props, costumes, original
posters, paintings and photographs will be on show, representing live
performance in Britain over the last 350 years. 

Original scores, documents and manuscripts will include the only known
Handel promptbook produced during his lifetime (1720), the score for
Jesus Christ Superstar (1971) marked with alterations made by the
conductor during rehearsals and an early draft manuscript of
Sheridan’s The School for Scandal (1777). The pages of each will be
digitised to allow visitors to explore the texts in detail.

A large section on costume design will feature garments worn on stage
by leading actors such as Richard Burton as Henry V (Old Vic, 1955) and
Laurence Olivier in Oedipus Rex (Old Vic, 1945) as well as musical
performers including Jimmy Page and Brian Eno. On display will be the
red dress and hat designed by Christian Dior for Vivien Leigh in Duel of
Angels (St James Theatre, 1955) and the tutu worn by Margot Fonteyn in
Swan Lake (State Opera House, Vienna, 1964). An Ossie Clark jump suit
worn by Mick Jagger on the 1972 Rolling Stones world tour, a horse
headress worn during the first performance of Equus (Old Vic, 1974), and
a Showgirl costume from The Producers (Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 2004)
will also be on view.

Stage models, sketches and paintings will reflect the role of set
designers. On show will be one of the earliest surviving set models from
1793 for a production of The Wonders of Derbyshire by landscape painter
Philip James de Loutherbourg. There will also be models by some of the
most internationally acclaimed set designers of the 20th and 21st
centuries including Edward Gordon Craig (1872-1966), Alison Chitty and
Ralph Koltai, as well as designs for ballets at Sadler’s Wells by
British painters John Piper and Edward Burra. 

Posters and programmes from productions spanning over 200 years will
include an early playbill from a 1759 production of The Earl of Essex, a
souvenir red silk program from 1958 marking the 2239th performance of
The Mousetrap (making it the longest-running show in the West End) and
the original artwork by Jamie Reid for a Sex Pistols promotional poster,
1977.

A new film specially commissioned for the gallery will explore what
performance is and feature interviews with playwright Michael Frayn,
directors Sir Peter Hall, Peter Brook and Paulette Randall, actor Henry
Goodman and Director of the Royal Ballet, Monica Mason. Visitors will
also be able to see archive footage and photographs of well-known
performances and performers including Rudolf Nureyev, Marlene Dietrich,
Daniel Radcliffe, Fiona Shaw and Carlos Acosta and highlights from the
National Video Archive of Performance including work by Complicité, the
Royal Shakespeare Company as well as West End musicals, pantomime and
fringe theatre. 

To complement the new galleries there will be an extensive events
programme focusing on the nature of theatre and performance, include
schools workshops and family activities - see www,vam.ac.uk/tco/learning
for full details. 

The V&A is also touring exhibitions from its Theatre and Performance
Collections 
and presenting them online
(www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance). The V&A will stage
the exhibition Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in 2010. 

Victoria and Albert Museum
Cromwell Road 
London SW7
www.vam.ac.uk/collections/theatre_performance/index.html 







- --------------------------------------------------------------

Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970 
25 September 2008 - 11 January 2009 at V&A South Kensington 
Book now on www.vam.ac.uk

Top to Toe: Fashion for Kids
4 October 2008 - 19 April 2009 at V&A Museum of Childhood
Admission free

Keep in touch - visit www.vam.ac.uk and sign up for our regular e-newsletter

- ---------------------------------------------------------------


The information contained in this message is confidential and intended only
for the individual named above. If you are not the intended recipient, or responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution, copying, or disclosure of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us by telephone on 020 7942 2353. This message has been scanned for viruses by the MessageLabs Email Security System.
______________________________________________________________________